The Rocky Balboa statue / La statue de Rocky Balboa

The stairs in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art are very famous as the training ground of Rocky Balboa, in the 1976 movie Rocky, directed by John G. Avildsen. The stairs appear successively in Rocky II (directed by Sylverster Stallone in 1979), Rocky III (Sylverster Stallone, 1985), Rocky V (John G. Avildsen, 1990) and Rocky Balboa (Sylverster Stallone, 2006). The stairs could be considered as a materialization of the fiction as some people call it now Rocky Steps but we will focus on the bronze statue of Rocky, work of the American artist A. Thomas Schomberg, that Stallone offered to the city in 1982.

It represents Rocky in battle dress and raising his fists. This 3 tons weight and 10 feet tall statue was installed at the top of the stairs for the shooting of Rocky III, before it was offered to the City. Unfortunately, it proved to be an awkward present since the authorities of the museum questioned the artistic value of the statue. Work without artistic value for some, cultural icon for the others, it has been exhibited for a long time at the front of the Spectrum (Arena) of Philadelphia, where the fight between Rocky and Apollo Creed takes place in the movie. It got back temporarily to its original place during some movies shooting: Rocky V, Mannequin, Philadelphia. Stocked in the Museum’s reserves since 2002, it find its definitive (?) place in 2006, at the bottom right of the steps. Note that the debate remains underlying…

At the top of the stairs, the statue was replaced with a simple set of Rocky footprints for marking the original place of the statue.

Rocky footprints at the top of the steps / L’empreinte des pieds de Rocky en haut des marches

On the IISOH website, we can read the institute own the rights of both the Rocky statues … This point need to be confirmed.

The Rocky Statue in Žitište / La statue de Rocky à Žitište

But Rocky does not materialize only in Philadelphia. There is indeed another statue of Rocky in Serbia in the center of Žitište, a village located 55 kilometers north from Belgrade. This work by a Croatian artist was intended to revitalize the village, that suffered numerous ordeals.

Another statue of Rocky is observed in 2007, around the Avispa Fukuoka‘s stadium, a Japanese soccer club, during a tournament sponsored by the production of Rocky Balboa (the movie !). But we do not know where it comes from, if it stayed there, or where is its current location … All information about it would be welcome.

Finally, let us go back to the top of Rocky steps… where we find numerous (but temporaries) living local materializations of fiction, works of many people, Rocky’s fans … or not, who come for replay the famous scene when Rocky runs to the top of the steps, turns back and raises his arms in sign of victory. See the video :